Against All Odds
by konarciq
Summary: Ever thought of placing some of your most beloved FD-characters in a totally different situation, just to see how they turn out? Here is the story of David and Magda in Nazi-Germany. A lovestory against all odds, for David is Jewish...
1. Chapter 1

Author´s note:

Getting more and more into fanfics about the ww2-satire/comedy _Hogan´s Heroes_, I started wondering how my favourite fanfic-characters from _The Flying Doctors_ would do if placed in a totally different situation like Nazi Germany.

This is the result. It´s actually a piece of a _Hogan´s Heroes_ fanfic for which I explored David and Magda in Nazi Germany for a background story.

Previous knowledge of the TV-series _Hogan´s Heroes_ is not necessary, but for proper crediting´s sake: this story is a mild crossover between _The Flying Doctors_ and _Hogan´s Heroes_, borrowing a bit from the _Hogan´s Heroes_ fanfics _Theater of War_ (by Eva Seifert) and _Chameleon Fever_ (my own) as well.

***

_Situation: Hamelburg, near Düsseldorf, March 1945. _

_The secret has got out that Hitler has ordered an all-destroying bombing-raid _

_on the small German town of Hamelburg tonight. _

_The town is getting ready to evacuate within a few hours. _

_At the orphanage, the following scene unfolds:_

_._

"I´m not going." Very determined.

The ladies gasped. And father Geisler gently took her by the arm, to talk some sense into her: "Magdalena, you can not stay here."

"But I am. I am leaving Rosemarie in your care, father. Please make sure she gets to safety. But I am staying here; I can´t leave. David would never find me."

_._

_Followed by a long flashback, _

_telling the story of David and Magda_

_in Nazi-Germany:_

_._

**Against All Odds**

_._

_David Nowak had only just graduated from the Dresden medical college when Adolf Hitler came to power. Which meant his medical degree, his studies turned instantly useless: he was Jewish. His father advised him to leave the country; elsewhere his degree would be more accepted than here in the fatherland._

_But David refused. He figured the success of the NSDAP was hardly more than an accident. Once the hype would have quieted down, once the German people would realize what a fool that Hitler was, it would all be over. And it wouldn´t take long: German governments in the Weimar Republic had a devastating tendency of succeeding one another at a rapid pace._

_He had yet another reason for staying put in Germany. A female reason named Fräulein Magdalena Kirchhoffs. They had met – how conventional – at the birthday-party of a mutual friend a few years ago. This lady of course was as much a matchmaker as any of her sex. She immediately rated _his_ shy admiring glances and _her_ blushing smiles at their true value, and innocently arranged independent meetings of herself with both Magda and David at a cosy café in town, the following Saturday at 8 p.m. Where she herself didn´t show up until 10.30 of course. But from that night on, David Nowak and Magdalena Kirchhoffs were officially an item._

_Their carefully started infatuation had steadily grown into a sturdy love. They even started to talk about marriage once in a while, and David quietly planned to officially ask for her hand as soon as he would have graduated and found a decent job._

_Unfortunately he couldn´t be so sure about the reception though. For neither of their families was very happy about their relationship. Magda came from a catholic home, where Jews at best rated as heathens. And her family was quite open in their abhorrence of their daughter and sister being involved with such a pagan; they´d much rather see her marry into a good catholic family. As a result, David hardly ever entered the Kirchhoffs´s house in order to avoid unpleasantries that would undoubtedly affect the both of them._

_The Kirchhoffs´s didn´t exactly make a secret of their sentiments towards their daughter´s beau, and consequently David´s family was bound to hear about it even if David himself had kept quiet about it to his parents. And as it goes, they decided on the infamous strategy of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and declared that they would not want to see their son get involved with a family that had no respect for his background. And all this before David had even considered proposing to her..._

_Still, their families connived at their ongoing dates and meetings. But both David and Magda were aware that a marriage between them would probably force one or both of them to completely break with their family. And whether they were up to that...?_

_The years dragged on after David´s graduation. As expected, he could not possibly find a job as a doctor. Not even in all of Germany: Jews were forbidden to practice medicine altogether. And they would be as long as Hitler was in power. And despite David´s earliest expectations, it seemed more and more unlikely that this madman was soon to be replaced._

_In the end, the once so promising and ambitious young doctor was lucky to be granted a severely underpaid black job at an assembly line. The work there was so horridly monotonous that he felt sure he wouldn´t survive if he wouldn´t have his dearest Magdalena to come home to after work. So he gathered his courage and proposed to her. And found her crying in his arms._

_She didn´t dare to. She didn´t dare to, not in the present situation. She was scared. Scared of the certain poverty they would have to live in – a standard of living she was not accustomed to. And scared of a society that was becoming more and more threatening towards the group of people her David belonged to as well. She just didn´t dare._

_Their relationship almost ended that day. But in the end David´s anger subsided and he was able to find some understanding for her fears. And once again, they decided to wait. Wait till things would get better._

_It was tough, on both of them, but after nearly three dark and prospectless years, their patience was finally rewarded. By January 1938, the tide finally turned. David´s obstinacy in continuing to apply for a position more suited to his education finally paid off: he was offered a share in the practice of a Dr. Ernst Bauer in Hamelburg, a small country-town just outside Düsseldorf._

_His felicity knew no bounds: he had raced over to the Kirchhoffs, fell down on his knees as soon as Magda had opened the door and totally surprised her with a beaming marriage proposal._

_Magda had accepted before she realized what she said, and by then she was already being whirled around the wintergarden in his arms._

_"Why, what´s happened? Have you won the lottery or something?"_

_He laughed; the carefree laugh that had been locked up inside for years. A quick kiss on her nose, and then he finally spilled the great news: "I´ve been offered a share in a medical practice!"_

_A cry of joy and Magda hugged him so tight he nearly choked. "Oh David, I´m so happy for you..." She felt tears gathering in her eyes. She, and she alone had known the horrible sacrifice David had faced in working at the assembly-line for over three years. She had noted the growing differences between the gentle, friendly David she had grown to love so much, and the quiet, depressed, explosive shadow of him from the past years. This news, this job had brought the old, the real David Nowak back to the living, and she was sure they could now face whatever problems there were to arise concerning their marriage and the threatening society they were living in._

_The problems were closer than she realized. When she released her hug just enough to be able to look in his beaming eyes, and he whispered a heartfelt ´I love you, Magda´, as a sure prelude to what would have been their first real kiss, they were roughly jerked apart by a seething father´s hand._

_Magda cried out with the force her father had pulled her away._

_"You dirty Judehund! Get your paws off my daughter!"_

_David paled, and stiffened visibly._

_"And don´t you _ever_ get near my daughter again! Is that understood?"_

_And David, for the first time in years feeling strong and confident thanks to his newfound job, David chose to finally defy his father-in-law-to-be. Not that he uttered a word, nor that he made a move. No. He only looked the man straight in the eye, with his jaw set, his mouth a thin line, and his eyes black with barely contained anger and disdain._

_"Is that understood?" the man in front of him roared in his face._

_And David just looked at him, refusing to give in or to answer the question._

_"Hmpf," Mr. Kirchhoffs finally humphed. And he turned on his heel, dragging his daughter with him._

_"Tonight. Am Bahnhof," Magda managed to say sottovoce over her shoulder just before her father closed the door behind her. But she had seen David´s nod; he had understood._

xxx

_David went home to his parents first. The excited felicity about his job had been crushed by Mr. Kirchhoffs´s interference, but fortunately it regained some of its glamour when he saw how happy the news made his parents. His father had dozens of questions, of which he could answer but a few._

_"And what about Magda?" his mother quietly inquired when his father´s curiosity had finally reached its limits._

_David bit his lip. He felt tears gathering in his eyes, and impatiently he blinked them away. "We´re eloping. Tonight," he confessed hoarsely._

_His announcement was met by silence._

_"Believe me, I´d rather do it any other way!" he groaned tormentedly. "But Mr. Kirchhoffs doesn´t leave us any other choice! I..." He hesitated. "I went to see her this afternoon with the good news. And I proposed. And she accepted. For a few moments we were in seventh heaven. But then her father caught on to us, and told me never to get near her again. She just managed to mention a place to meet tonight before he hauled her off inside. And... I´m going."_

_A sigh from his father. "Funny how we never seem to learn from the past. Kind of tragic actually."_

_David looked at him questioningly, and his father chuckled. "I´m beginning to suspect that parents are but lousy judges in what would give their children happiness. No matter how well they mean." Another sigh. "Your mother´s family and mine weren´t too keen on us marrying either. A question of social standing. Well, you know the result."_

_"We´ve been happily married for over thirty years now," his mother added quietly._

_"Therefore," his father stood and placed his hands heavily on the shoulders of his only son: "Now that you two have made the decision, I will give you my blessing, my son. I hope you and your wife will be as happy – or even happier – in your life together as your mother and I."_

_David swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. "Thank you, father."_

_"And I hope you two are going to provide us with heaps of grandchildren!" his father added with a beaming grin._

_To this, David had but a smile. He then went quietly to his room to pack his meager belongings: his medical books and tools, the few not too worn pieces of clothing he could call his own, a few dear keepsakes..._

_Then his father entered the room with two of his best shirts and a jacket. "Here, son. I´d like you to have these. I know we´re not exactly of the same size, but hopefully Magda will be able to alter them. We can´t have you start your new job in nothing but rags, can we now."_

_David could scarcely find the words to thank his father. And when his mother, too, slipped him seventy-three marks from her secret savings ("because you deserve it, my boy, if only for not giving up") and his grandmother´s silver ring ("better an old ring than no ring at all"), he knew for sure that Magda and he could count on the moral support from at least _his_ family after all._

xxx

_David arrived at the railway-station at a mere quarter past six. At first he headed for the booking-office, but on second thought he decided he´d better wait. After all, he had no idea what time Magda would get there. Instead, he sat down in the giant hall, facing the entrance from the square outside the station._

_And facing the giant clock as well. Every minute was sixty times the slow tick of a second. And every next minute seemed to pass even slower than the one before. Six-thirty, six-forty-five, seven, quarter past, half past, quarter to... And all that time lots and lots of people entered the stationhall. But the one he was so anxiously waiting for was not among them._

_Where was she? What could have happened?! Had they locked her up or something?_

_Half past eight, nine o´clock, nine-thirty... He was chewing his lower lip to shreds._

_Ten o´clock, half past... The crowds had thinned significantly by now._

_Eleven... What am I to do if she doesn´t show up?! Go and get her?_

_Finally! There she was! At ten past eleven a little figure with a small suitcase rushed into the hall, anxiously looking around._

_"Magda!" David jumped up and ran to meet her. And there, in the middle of the stationhall, he caught her in his arms and hugged her tight. "I was getting worried that you couldn´t make it," he whispered in her hat._

_"I was given house-arrest, and they locked me in my room. But I climbed out of the window," she told him matter-of-factly._

_He couldn´t help laughing for relief. "My Magdali!_

_"Come on," he said then, "we might still make it to the night-train to Düsseldorf. Where´s your luggage?"_

_She pointed at the small cane suitcase at her feet._

_"That´s all you could take with you??"_

_She shook her head. "And about five layers of clothes,_ and_..." She waited a moment to add importance to her announcement: "My savings! We won´t have to starve until you´ll get your first salary!"_

_He smiled. "Great. My mother gave us some money, too. Well, let´s go and get tickets then, and then off to Hamelburg!"_

_David got his suitcase, they got their tickets – third class of course; for even if they would have been able to afford it, David as a Jew was not allowed to set foot in the more luxurious compartments – and they just made it to the platform in time._

_And as they fell down on the wooden bench in the further empty compartment, and Magda rolled into David´s arms as the train took the sharp turn out of the station, they both felt a whole new life was opening up before them. A life as man and wife. Together. On top of the world._

xxx

_It was halfway the following afternoon when they – stiffly but eagerly – climbed off the downtrain at Hamelburg station. They handed in their tickets, and a moment later they breathed in the cold, snowy air of the hills around Hamelburg._

_Hamelburg! They were determined to find thorough happiness here!_

_After some asking around they found their way to Dr. Bauer´s. With a mischievous grin, David entered the large house at the patient´s entrance and reported to the nurse at the desk._

_"I would like to see Dr. Bauer, please. But we´ve got all the time in the world, so you may book us in as the last patients of the day."_

_"There is no one before you, so you may as well be the first one," was the dry answer. "So if you take a seat, Dr. Bauer will come to see you in a moment."_

_They sat down in the empty waiting-room, and Magda whispered chidingly: "Is that a way to start your new job?"_

_But David smiled from ear to ear and took her hands in his. "I´m so excited; I just _had _to do something silly. I thought I kept it within reasonable bounds pretty well, didn´t you?"_

_She smiled, and he leaned over to kiss her._

_At that moment a door was opened and an elderly man with a goatee appeared. "Ahem," he coughed discreetly, and David and Magda jumped._

_"You wish to see me?" Dr. Bauer asked sternly. But the twinkle in his eyes was unmistakable, and David felt he could meet his employer openly._

_"Yes, sir. I´m Dr. David Nowak, your..."_

_"Dr. Nowak?" Dr. Bauer interrupted him with surprise. "I had not expected you to arrive here so soon! Please, do come in. And this is your... wife?" He looked rather puzzled. "I had not gathered that you were married..."_

_David hesitated. "Is that a problem?" He had to swallow a sudden lump in his throat. "Well, we are not actually married. Not yet. It´s a long story..."_

_Dr. Bauer gave them an understanding smile. "Then why don´t you both come in and tell me that long story of yours."_

_A few minutes later they were comfortably seated in the office, sipping their steaming hot coffee. David told their story, and Dr. Bauer listened without interrupting him._

_"I see," he said pensively when his young colleague finally fell silent._

_A few minutes of silence ensued. Then, Dr. Bauer suddenly turned to Magda. "I hope I am not offending you by asking this question, but... are your family members of the nazi-party? Or sympathizing with them?"_

_Magda shook her head. "No. They´re not. They just... they just don´t like Jews."_

_"Very well. That means the chances of their turning David – and you – in to the Gestapo are considerably less. We can´t be sure, but at least there is hope." He sighed. "But the first thing to do is getting you two properly married. If only for social reasons: in a town this size, people consider everyone else´s business their own. A marriage between a Jew and a German will probably cause more than enough talk; no need to make it any harder by adding a juicy elopement scandal. That is: Fräulein Kirchhoffs, are you really sure you want to stir up a hornet´s nest by marrying Dr. Nowak? You _do_ realize it is against the present law for a German to marry a Jew? I can´t predict the future, but chances are that in the end you may have to face the same social exclusion as your husband. Or worse, if the Nazi´s get their way."_

_Magda´s lips were a thin line. "I realize that. But I have made up my mind. I don´t care about what the world will say. I love David, and I want to be his wife. In good times and in bad."_

_A smile touched Dr. Bauer´s lips. "Fine. I suggest you two go and see father Geisler tonight then, so that the marriage may take place as soon as may be. I know him well; for him, God´s law is still the only law, so I doubt he will object to performing the ceremony."_

_David and Magda nodded. Relieved._

_"Fräulein," Dr. Bauer continued, "I think it is best if you´d stay in my guest-room until the big day. Dr. Nowak, you may sleep on the divan tonight; we´ll see about other arrangements tomorrow."_

_Magda nodded her approval, but David suddenly said: "Speaking of hornet´s nests, Dr. Bauer... May I be so bold as to inquire why you chose to employ_ me_? A Jew? I am very grateful for the opportunity you are giving me; I don´t think you´ll ever fully understand_ how_ grateful, but..."_

_Dr. Bauer sighed. "I don´t know if I did the right thing by that, but I wanted to make a statement. The Nazi´s have replaced so many excellent physicians, just because of their descent. And to replace them, they pulled kids out of medical school who hadn´t even taken their final exams yet, thus jeopardizing the entire medical corps as well as the people´s health. And since the nazi-party has relatively little support here in town, I thought I could combine practicality with ethics. There are hardly any qualified non-Jewish doctors left on the labour-market, and by choosing you, I hope to consolidate the Hamelburghians´ idea that Jews are ordinary people like you and me." Another sigh. "I want to give young, promising physicians like you a chance. A chance for a somewhat normal life in the madhouse that Germany has become. But whether it will work out the way I hope for...?"_

xxx

_Things were organized pretty much as Dr. Bauer had suggested. By courtesy of the old doc, David managed to get hold of a small house in the labourer´s district of the town. They had next to nothing to furnish it with of course, but at the local fleemarket the following Saturday they were fortunate enough to get the basic necessities. It was a large slice out of their budget, but oh, the pride they felt in creating their own little home..._

_David had started his work the Monday following, and even though it happened regularly that a patient refused to be treated by him, he loved practically every minute of it. Finally he was able to do the work he loved; to make his studies and his knowledge productive. Like in the factory, the hours were long here, too. But it was a totally different David Nowak from before who went up with Dr. Bauer every day after work to spend a few hours with his future wife. Happy, open, full of life, and in love._

_The date for their wedding ceremony was set for two weeks after their arrival in Hamelburg. Father Geisler had readily agreed to marry them as they wished, though he did insist on a private talk with Magda to point out to her the many problems she may have to face by marrying a Jew. And not just with respect to the growing anti-semitic tendencies in today´s society, but in her personal religious life as well. However, when he found that the bride-to-be had long since considered these problems and was still determined to follow her heart, he decided to let it be and grant the couple his blessing._

_The wedding was celebrated on a late Friday afternoon in early February 1938. It was a private celebration, and the only ones attending the matrimonial service besides the three leading figures were the two witnesses: Dr. Bauer, and a visiting nephew of father Geisler´s: a rather shy young man in his early twenties named Karl Langenscheidt._

_Dr. Bauer beamed from ear to ear; almost as if he were the father of the bride. And when the ceremony was over, he clasped David´s hand and said: "And now you two go and enjoy your well-deserved weekend´s honeymoon!"_

_Money to go on a real honeymoon of course they had not. But the sensation of living together in their own house, with no one watching over them, and the opportunity to explore their contained passion from years made for a wonderful honeymoon anyway._

_And so, under the darkening sky of Hitler´s nazi-Germany, the new Mr. and Mrs. Nowak lived the life of ´happily ever after´._

_For a few weeks that is._

_For one cold night in early March was to turn both their lives inside out and upside down. By courtesy of none other than – who else – the Gestapo._


	2. Chapter 2

_Magda and David had happily enjoyed yet another night of making love – there had hardly been a night without ever since their wedding-night – and then falling asleep in each other´s arms, when they were awakened by a loud thumping. _

_On their _back_ door. _

_And an urgent voice calling for Dr. Nowak._

_David was on call that night, so he hopped out of bed, jumped in his pants and ran downstairs to find out what was going on._

_As soon as he unlocked the back door, a man in a checkered overcoat and a cap drawn down over his eyes bursted in and as quickly shut the door behind him._

_"Quick!" he panted._

_"What´s going on? Is there an emergency somewhere?"_

_But the stranger grabbed him by the arm and led him back upstairs. _

_"Now wait a minute!" David protested vehemently. "You can´t just barge in here and...!"_

_"Be quiet!" the stranger hissed urgently. He led the still resisting doctor into the bedroom, where Magda quickly covered herself. _

_"David?! Who is this man?"_

_The stranger pulled off his cap. "I´m sorry if I frightened you, Frau Nowak. It´s Karl Langenscheidt, father Geisler´s nephew. I was a witness at your wedding, remember?"_

_They had to peer four, five times in the dark shadows before they recognized something vaguely familiar in the sturdy bearded man in his forties._

_"I´m an actor, and disguising is my specialty," Langenscheidt apologized when he saw their apoplectic expressions. "But time is running out too quickly for lengthy explanations. Dr. Nowak, the Gestapo is on its way here. They´re rounding up all the Jews in a giant razzia tonight, and Lord knows what they´re going to do to them. You have to flee, to hide, now! They can be here any minute!"_

_Still hesitantly, David picked up his shirt. "Flee? Where to?" _

_"I´ll come with you. And if you lose sight of me, hide in the graveyard of father Geisler´s church; I´ll catch up with you there. Now hurry up and get dressed before they get here!"_

_David finally made haste in getting dressed._

_"You better put on something, too, Frau Nowak," Langenscheidt said gently. "They can be here any moment; you don´t want to face the Gestapo in a state of nature, do you?"_

_Magda blushed, still overwhelmed by everything that was suddenly happening around her. But before she even moved, they all heard the sound of screeching tyres coming to a halt very close by. Cardoors slamming, orders being barked..._

_"Quick!" Langenscheidt whispered urgently. _

_And while David threw on his jacket and grabbed his cap, Karl Langenscheidt opened the bedroom windows and climbed out on the roof. _

_For one final time David bent down to his wife. "Don´t you worry; I´ll be back," he whispered over the shouting outside. "I love you. Wait for me."_

_At that moment the front door was kicked in. _

_One final superquick kiss, and then her dear David jumped up on the windowsill, coolly closed the window behind him and disappearead out of sight over the dark roof. For a moment she thought she heard his footsteps creaking on the tins. But the next thing she knew she was surrounded by four, five Gestapomen in their black uniforms. _

_Magda sat paralyzed._

_"Well? Where is he?" a guy with a very nasty voice demanded._

_"M... my husb... my husband?" Magda stammered. Try and act normal! Natural, she told herself. _

_Natural... She still wasn´t clad..._

_"Paah! Of course your ´husband´!" that nasty guy growled. _

_"He... he´s out on a call." Magda heard how shaky she sounded._

_"And you sleep naked even when you are alone?" the man drawled. "Search the house!" he then barked. _

_The other men swarmed out over the house, turning everything inside out, and trashing whatever came in their way. Only their leader stayed, to keep watch over Magda, and his eyes made her feel very uneasy. What was he up to? _

_David was gone; hopefully in safety by now. That Langenscheidt guy had been just in time. _

_But something in this Gestapoman´s eyes warned her that she herself was not exactly in safety..._

_One by one the men returned to the bedroom. "Nothing," was all they had to report._

_"Well then, my dear Frau Nowak," their leader drawled again, his fingers playing with the gun in his belt. "I am sure you will be able to tell us where this call was your Dr. Nowak had to attend to."_

_"N... no! I _don´t_ know!" Magda nearly cried out for fear seeing the gun suddenly in the leader´s hand, pointing right at her. "I swear, I don´t know where he´s gone! He doesn´t always tell me!"_

_"Oh, you swear, do you now? Well, I´m sure we have a few methods that will help restore your memory. Take her away!" he ordered._

_"But why!" Magda cried out as strong hands pulled her out of bed, naked and all. "What have I done?"_

_The nasty guy brought his face so close to hers that she could smell his bad breath. "Why? Because you´re a dirty Jew-lover, my dear. A traitor! Take her away," he barked again._

_And Magda was dragged down the stairs, hauled through the broken front door and thrown into the black truck. Three of the men jumped in the back with her, and off they sped through the night._

xxx

_A dark, rough cell. No window. Just a small plank bed; no mattress, no blanket. Nothing to cover herself with. _

_Shivering, her knees drawn up to her chin, she leaned against the rough cell-wall. Where was she? How long had she been here? It could be half an hour, it could be three days. She had lost all track of the time, of night and day. It was just dark. And cold. And she was thirsty._

_Still, they left her alone. So far. _

_Every now and then cries from the corridor outside or from other cells floated to her ear. Raw cries, full of pain, of fear, of despair. She didn´t know what was going on. But she was scared. Scared for the moment they´d remember_ her_, and start on _her_. And judging by the cries she heard, they were not likely to merely ask questions..._

_What had happened the other night? Had David managed to get away with that Langenscheidt guy? Was he safe now? Would he know by now what had happened to her? Would anybody know at all? Would anybody _care_?! _

_She felt like crying, but she would not. She preferred to appear strong in front of her captors, whenever they might take notice of her again. _

_If only she could get out of here..._

_David´s words echoed in her mind: "Don´t you worry; I´ll be back. I love you. Wait for me." She had to hang onto that. To his love, and his promise to come back to her. _

_But would he have guessed that there might be just as much to worry about _her_ as there was about him? _

_A sudden rattling at the door, and with a clang it flew open. From the outside a bare bulb was turned on, mercilessly exposing her nakedness._

_Magda blinked against the sudden light and quickly crossed her arms over her breasts. _

_"So..." It was the leader with his nasty drawling voice. He shut the door behind him and came to stand right in front of her. "Is your memory coming back yet? Tell me: where is that Judehund Nowak? We´ve been guarding the house; he hasn´t come back yet."_

_"I don´t know where he is," Magda responded. She tried hard not to shiver in front of this man. _

_"That is a lie!" the man growled._

_"It is the truth! I don´t know where he is." If only she did... Or maybe better not; who knows what this guy was up to to make her talk. The less she could betray, the better._

_An unexpected blow to the head almost made her lose her balance. _

_"Tell me: where is he!"_

_"I don´t know! Honestly!" Magda groaned. _

_Another blow, from the other side this time. "Don´t lie to me! Where is he!"_

_She held her head in her hands; she didn´t venture an answer this time._

_Suddenly the man was awfully close to her. "You won´t talk, huh? Well, don´t worry, my dear. We have ways to make you talk. Very pleasant ways – for me! Whether they will be equally pleasant for you..."_

_With a sudden, forceful move he pushed her shoulders down on the cot. And Magda knew instantly what he was up to: to wipe out the sweet memory of David´s gentle body against and in hers, by replacing it with a memory of brutal and painful force. She couldn´t let that happen! _

_But what could she do?! Her knees were still pulled up to her chest, as a buffer, but... But if she´d be able to stop him from...? No doubt that he was far stronger than she was. And the way he leaned in on her... _

_"Ja, now I see you cowering, huh? Then tell me where this Hund is, and I might – just might! – leave you alone."_

_She didn´t answer; her mind was frantically searching for a way to prevent him from..._

_"You still don´t remember, do you? Well, let´s see if we can remedy that." He stood up straight again to undo his belt and lower his pants. And he grinned at the growing fear in his prisoner´s eyes. "Come, my dear."_

_But just as he threw himself on top of her, Magda´s foot kicked out – almost of its own accord – and hit him with full force. Full in the crotch. So that he bounced back with a high-pitched shriek and fell to the floor, moaning loudly._

_Magda just stared; she could scarcely believe what she had done. _

_But then the celldoor flew open and two guards came rushing in. _

_"Major Feldkamp (1)!" one of them cried out as he noticed his superior moaning on the floor. _

_They helped the major up, and practically had to carry him out of the room. _

_And Magda just stared after them. Apathetically. _

_But just before the door fell shut again, she heard the major groan through his teeth: "She´ll pay for this..."_

_The light was turned off again, but after a while – ten minutes? an hour? half a day? – it was suddenly turned back on again. And the next moment the celldoor rattled open and revealed a seething major Feldkamp. _

_Magda tried to cover herself instinctively as the man – still somewhat unstable – entered the cell for the second time. _

_"You´ll pay for this," were his first, dangerously quiet words. "You´ll pay. Oh yes. Dearly." And he struck her head with a blow._

_For an unaccountable time, major Feldkamp took out his sadism and his frustrated male pride on her. She was kicked, punched, hit all over, dragged by her hair across the rough concrete floor, spit on, tramped on, thrown into the walls... _

_At first she tried to fight back as best she could, but her tormentor was so fierce and so sure in his hits that she quickly changed her tactics to just trying and evade his blows as much as possible. And when he finally left her bruised and bleeding body lying in a heap on the floor, he yelled: "Becker! Shaving-tackle!"_

_Magda was scarcely aware of what happened. She hurt all over, and drifted in and out of a state of semi-consciousness. She was vaguely aware of something cold sliding over her head. And later on, she was thrown over someone´s shoulder and carried off, into the back of a truck again. _

_It was dark. And cold. _

_They stopped. She was shoved out by her hands and her ankles. And thrown in a ditch beside the road. _

_And the truck drove on, leaving its semi-conscious passenger by the wayside. _


	3. Chapter 3

_A few hours later, Frau Irmgard Telemann, a middle-aged widow from Hamelburg who served as housekeeper for father Geisler, was walking her dog in the woods along the Flenzheimer Straße._

_It was misty and chilly, but the dog – a German shepherd – loved the long Saturday-morning walks with his mistress. In these woods, at this time of day, he could run around free and give outlet to his playful sleuthy nature._

_But when they were about two kilometers from town, Stefan suddenly stood stockstill sniffing the air. And then he ran off at top speed along the road._

_"Stefan! Here!" Frau Telemann ordered._

_But the dog paid no attention to her commands. He came to a halt by the side of the road and barked fervently at something in the ditch there._

_"Stefan!" Frau Telemann called out again._

_But the dog kept barking, and ignored her calling._

_"Stupid dog," Frau Telemann muttered as she hurried after him. "What have you found this time? Not a dead gopher again?"_

_She stepped into the verge to grab him by the collar. But then she saw what he was barking over. And she cried out in shock._

_A body._

_At first she thought it was some kind of an alien: the multi-coloured limbs, the bald head, the black eyes, no eyebrows..._

_But then the eyes opened slightly, and the broken lips whispered: "Hilfe..." It was a woman. Naked. Badly manhandled._

_"Mein Gott," Frau Telemann whispered – shocked. "What have they done to you?"_

_She had to get help. But how? "Can you stand?" she urged the woman._

_There was no reaction. Had she died?! Had that "Hilfe" been her last word?_

_Carefully she stepped down into the ditch._

_No, the woman´s eyes followed her; she was not dead. Not yet._

_Frau Telemann knelt down and carefully brought her arm under the cold, bruised shoulders. "Can you stand?"_

_A barely visible shake of the head this time. And Frau Telemann felt a slight panic coming on. Obviously the poor woman was in no condition to walk all the way back to town with her. But how could she possibly leave her here in order to go and get help herself?!_

_That´s when Stefan pushed his snout in her neck. "Wroof!" he told her. And she sighed with relief._

_"Of course! You are such a smart dog; you can go and get help, can´t you?"_

_She searched in her pockets for writing material, and found a small pencil and an old receipt. With trembling hands she scribbled down a few lines, pushed the little scrawl deep into one of her gloves and held it out to the dog._

_"Stefan! Go to father Geisler! Quick! Run! Understood? Father Geisler!"_

_A muffled wroof as the dog took the glove from her. He gave her one last look; then he jumped back onto the road and took off in the direction of Hamelburg._

_"Please, God, let him go straight to father Geisler! And let help come quick, so that this poor woman may live!"_

_Then she took off her coat and spread it out over the bluish bruised body. She took off her shawl and wrapped it around the poor bald head, leaving only the face free._

_"Danke," the woman whispered barely audible._

_And Frau Telemann took one of the icy cold hands in hers and began to pray. As fervently as she had never prayed before in her life._

xxx

_Father Geisler was just about to start on his breakfast when he heard Stefan´s muffled barking outside. It took a few minutes before he realized that the dog wasn´t barking at Frau Telemann´s door, but at his own. Apparently he wanted to come in._

_Why, was he alone? Where was Frau Telemann?_

_Father Geisler went to the kitchen to open the door for the dog. Stefan simply raced in, turned back to him and laid down a black leather glove at his feet._

_"What´s this, boy? Isn´t that Frau Telemann´s glove?"_

_An urgent barking in reply, and father Geisler suddenly worried. "Is she in trouble?!"_

_More barking. Then Stefan took the glove from him and... what... tried to chew it up?!_

_"Hey, what are you doing?!" If only that dog could talk and explain!_

_But hey, what was that!_

_He took the glove from Stefan again. A white corner stuck out. Paper. A note?_

_It was indeed: "_Found badly manhandled woman by wayside Flenzh. Str. Need doctor and transport urgently!_"_

_"Good Lord!" father Geisler exclaimed. He grabbed his coat and hat and gallopped out of the door, with Stefan high upon his heels. Dr. Bauer lived only a few streets away..._

_It was a pale Dr. Bauer to open the door at father Geisler´s urgent non-stop ringing. "Father Geisler! You?! I thought...!"_

_Father Geisler had no time for social amenities. "Get your instruments and your car. Quickly!"_

_Dr. Bauer had enough experience to recognize an emergency. Without asking questions, he grabbed his bag, his coat, his hat and his keys, and within twenty seconds the priest, the doctor and the dog sat in the car._

_"Where to?" Dr. Bauer demanded as he started the engine._

_"Flenzheimer Straße."_

_The doctor nodded, and turned the car out into the street. "What happened?"_

_"Don´t know. Frau Telemann writes she has found a badly manhandled woman." He showed him the note._

_"Hm," was all Dr. Bauer said in reply. But his brow furrowed and as soon as they were out of town, he pushed down the pedal to near maximum speed._

_"There!" father Geisler pointed._

_Dr. Bauer had seen Frau Telemann, too, standing in the verge, waving her arms urgently, and he pulled over beside her._

_Father Geisler was the first one out of the car, but when he laid eyes on the creature lying there in the ditch, he staggered back. "Good Lord! Please save this poor woman! And bring those responsible for her present state to justice..." he added under his breath._

_Dr. Bauer showed less shock. He pulled back the covering coat, and almost dispassionately checked out the badly bruised body. "Concussion, possibly broken facial bones, wound at the back of the head. Neck seems to be okay. Broken collarbone, dislocated shoulder, possibly broken ribs. Several. Hypothermia, dehydration, possibly pneumonia. Severe bruises and grazes all over. Might have been raped as well."_

_He covered the poor body again with the coat and looked up at father Geisler. "We have to get her to my place. You take the legs; there does not seem to be major damage there. I´ll take the head and the body. But careful! Frau Telemann, open the back door of the car, please."_

_Very carefully the two men maneuvered the beaten body onto the back seat. And as a shaken Frau Telemann in father Geisler´s coat started her wandering back home with the dog, the car quietly passed her with its precious load._

_"Do you think what I think?" father Geisler asked quietly._

_"Gestapo," the doctor replied toneless. "I bet you a thousand marks that she was supposed to die in that ditch."_

_"I don´t bet," the priest answered in the same manner. "But I share your opinion completely."_

_"And that´s why I´m not taking her to the hospital," Dr. Bauer said determinedly. "Not unless it´s absolutely necessary. I´ll try and see what I can do for her at home. If she makes it all," he added sottovoce._

_"I´ve been praying since I saw her lying there._

_"Then please, father, keep praying."_

xxx

_The first thing Magda noticed as she slowly drifted back to consciousness was the warmth. There was a friendly warm temperature all around her. And she wasn´t naked anymore._

_No, not really. She had no clothes on, but she was covered by something soft. Heavy, but still soft. A... a blanket. Many blankets._

_But as she became aware of her body being nicely covered up under warm blankets, she also became aware of the body itself. And how it hurt. Her head, her face: eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, chin... her shoulders, back, chest, arms, stomach, legs... Had she been through a clothes-wringer or something? Or in an accident? Run over by a train perhaps?_

_She couldn´t remember. Coldness, yes. Darkness, fear... Fear!_

_She wanted to sit up, to run, to flee!_

_But the slightest muscle movement gave her such a jolt of pain that she groaned, and she gave up before she had even started to get up._

_Someone reacted to her moans and bent down over her. A man. He looked vaguely familiar, but her head hurt too much to try and remember where she had met him._

_"Meine Frau? Fräulein? What is your name? Can you tell me your name?" the man asked._

_He sounded urgent. But even though she was sure she knew the words he used, she couldn´t possibly put a meaning to them. Let alone answer the... yes, the question. He was asking something. A question._

_No, he was speaking again. She tried to concentrate on what he said, to make sense of the sounds he uttered. One word she understood: "Safe." She even sort of remembered what it meant._

_Safe. She was safe._

_And with a shallow sigh she fell asleep._

xxx

_When she woke up again, her head seemed a lot clearer than before. She opened her eyes – slowly, for even that hurt – and discovered she was lying in a room she had seen before. The wallpaper, the small painting on the wall... Where was she?_

_The same face she had seen before bent down over her again. "I see you are awake again. Are you feeling a little better?"_

_She wanted to say something, but all that came out of her throat was a hoarse croaky sound._

_Her pounding head was gently lifted up, a straw touched her cloven lips. Yes, there was her mouth. A straw. Drinking. Thirst!_

_She took an eager sip, and almost choked on it right away._

_"Easy now," the voice soothed._

_She knew that voice. Who was this man? D... D... David?_

_No._

_David._

_Where was David?_

_She wanted to ask where David was, but her mouth wouldn´t quite cooperate._

_David. Why did she want to know where David was?_

_David was... David was..._

_Her lips tried again to form the difficult sounds. And the man – an old man, she registered – noticed and bent down over her again._

_"What is it?"_

_Another try. She wet her lips. "Dav... Dav-vid," she then croaked. "Where´s Da... vid..."_

_"David? Who is Da...?" Suddenly Dr. Bauer choked on his words, and his eyes widened in shock and surprise. "Magda? Magda Nowak?!"_

_"Yes," she answered with difficulty. That was right, wasn´t it?_

_No, wait. She was Magda... Magda... Kirchhoffs! No. Magda Nowak. That´s right. She was married. To David Nowak. That´s why she wanted to know where David was. He had fled over the roof, together with... with... well, whoever it was. And she..._

_All of a sudden she burst out in tears. Dr. Bauer carefully lifted her up a little and cradled her in his arms._

_"Where´s David?" Suddenly that was all she wanted to know. All she could care about._

_But no matter how much he would like to, Dr. Bauer could not answer that question..._

xxx

_A few days later, when she had recovered enough to be able to coherently relate what had happened, Dr. Bauer was relieved to hear that at least she hadn´t been raped._

_"I kicked him full in the guts when he tried to," Magda told him with grim satisfaction. "The guards had to carry him out. And when he came back for his revenge, I had the distinct impression that he hadn´t quite recovered enough to try it a second time."_

_Dr. Bauer chuckled. "Good on you. Though he might have gone easier on you, had he had the chance to..."_

_"That is just the outside," Magda replied with great dignity. "All that counts is that he hasn´t smudged the sacred inside: the parts I want only David to touch."_

_"Yes." Dr. Bauer smiled. "You are probably right: that is the most important thing."_

_Magda sighed. "If only I knew what happened to him..."_


	4. Chapter 4

_It was about a week later – Magda was half sitting in bed for the first time – that she got a visitor. There was a soft knocking on the guest-room´s door, and the head of a shy young man with big baby-blue eyes peeped around the door. "Frau Nowak? May I come in, please?"_

_"Sure," she answered in surprise – she hadn´t seen anyone but Dr. Bauer for the past ten days; it might be nice to talk to someone else for a change._

_The young man came in and his gangling figure sat down on a chair. He kept his eyes on the cap he was turning around and around in his hands, as if he was afraid to meet her eyes. _

_They sat silent for a few minutes, while Magda studied her visitor. She was pretty sure she had met him before, but... "Excuse me, sir, but I seem to have forgotten your name."_

_The young man looked up. "I´m Karl Langenscheidt, the man who..."_

_Magda sat up with a start, even though her suddenly pounding head and aching shoulder reminded her that she was not supposed to. "Karl Langenscheidt!? _You _were the one who...! Where is David? Is he safe?"_

_Karl nodded. "He is safe. For the moment. They didn´t get him."_

_A sigh of relief, and Magda suddenly felt the tears streaming down her face. _

_Langenscheidt watched her in agony for a few moments; then he handed her his handkerchief. "I´m so sorry, Frau Nowak," he told her quietly. "I had not expected they would take you instead when they didn´t find him. Otherwise I would of course have taken you along as well." He gulped. "I´m so sorry. In a way it´s my fault what they have done to you. And I hope I´ll be able to make it up to you – if only a little bit."_

_Magda had a vague smile. "Don´t worry about that. Where is David?"_

_He shook his head. "I´d better not tell you, for your own safety as well as for his. But as soon as Dr. Bauer thinks you´re fit enough to travel, I´d like to take you there, too. To go into hiding, I mean. The Gestapo has been watching your house ever since; probably hoping that David will return. But we don´t want them to get hold of you again either, do we?"_

_Magda slowly shook her head. "No. I´d rather not." She sat for a moment, her still slow brain digesting the information. "What do you mean: go into hiding?"_

_Langenscheidt sighed. "You know the nazis blame the Jews for every problem in this country, don´t you?"_

_Magda nodded. "But that´s nonsense."_

_"Of course it is. But it´s an excuse for what might become a genocide if they remain in power much longer."_

_"Genocide?" Magda frowned. "What is that?"_

_"Killing off an entire ethnic group," Langenscheidt replied quietly. "They might already have started: Jews are taken from their homes and never heard from again. But there are rumours: about labour camps, deportations... even about mass executions."_

_Magda paled. "They wouldn´t do that. They may not exactly be the good guys, those nazis, but I cannot believe sane people would do such a thing."_

_Langenscheidt sighed. "Neither can I. But when a country is led by a madman... As I said, they´re just rumours; I don´t know if it is true. But I do know that many Jews have left the country. And those who didn´t are mysteriously disappearing after a surprise visit from the Gestapo. And I´m afraid that most of them had no chance to go into hiding."_

_"You mean we´ll have to leave the country," Magda summarized._

_Langenscheidt nodded. "That would be the wisest thing to do. At least until that madman and his party are replaced by a more humane government. It may seem like a drastic measure, but from what I´ve heard and seen of those nazis, I´d say: ´Better safe than sorry´. Just look at what they did to you."_

_"Is David already out of the country?"_

_"No, not yet. It takes time to organize fake papers."_

_"And where do we go?"_

_"To Holland. It´s closest, and there is a large Jewish community there, especially in Amsterdam. Many Jews from Germany have taken refuge there, and the Dutch are historically known for being pretty tolerant toward Jews." He sighed. "You may as well face it, Frau Nowak: by marrying Dr. Nowak, according to the present people in power you pretty much turned yourself into a Jew..."_

_Magda made no reply. She remembered father Geisler´s warnings. Dr. Bauer´s concern. Her own family´s fervent pleas not to get involved with this man. Reality had proven them right. But she had no regrets. Marrying David and being his wife was the best thing she had ever experienced. Even if she could have, she had no desire to alter her decisions._

_"Herr Langenscheidt," she said quitely, "I assume that you know where my husband is."_

_Langenscheidt gave no reaction to her statement._

_"Would you have the opportunity to pass on a message to him, without endangering your or his safety?"_

_This time Langenscheidt nodded. Slowly._

_"Then please give me a piece of paper and a pen."_

_Langenscheidt complied without a word._

_"Have you told him what happened to me?"_

_A shake of the head. "I only just found out myself."_

_"Good. Then don´t. I don´t want him to worry unnecessarily, and I´ll be allright anyway. I´ll tell him myself when I see him again."_

_She took the pencil in her hand. Writing felt rather awkward with a shoulder that didn´t quite work yet. She barely recognized her own handwriting; hopefully David would, for she could of course hardly sign it, in case it fell into the wrong hands. So the message had to convey that it came from her. And after some thought she scribbled down with some difficulty: "_Don´t you worry, I´ll come back to you. I love you. Wait for me._"_

_One last look, then she handed the note to the man at her bedside. _

_He folded it in two and put it away in his pocket. "I´ll see to it that he gets it, Frau Nowak."_

xxx

_That night, the archives of the local registrar´s office in the Hamelburg town hall went up in flames. Apart from the room they were kept in, the town hall suffered but minor damage. But from that day on, the nazis had no records of the people living in Hamelburg. And maybe even more important: nor of their descent._

_The night following, a similar thing happened at the registrar´s office in nearby Flenzheim. And two nights later, an explosion destroyed an entire wing of the Düsseldorf town hall – including the registrar´s office._

_The nazis in the area fumed. This could not possibly be a coincidence; no, it was a deliberate act of sabotage! And even though several witnesses claimed to have seen an elderly man with a white beard acting somewhat suspiciously around all three of the town halls the night of their disasters, the culprit was never found. _

xxx

_"Dr. Bauer? Frau Nowak!"_

_Dr. Bauer jumped as an agitated, rather corpulent stranger with a large grey moustache barged into his living-room. _

_"Dr. Bauer, have you seen Dr. Nowak?"_

_"No." Dr. Bauer eyed his uninvited visitor from head to toe. "And who might you be, if I may be so bold to ask?"_

_The visitor tore off his cap, revealing a bald head with just a few fluffs of hair above the ears and a face more wrinkled than Dr. Bauer´s. "It´s me, Karl Langenscheidt. Father Geisler´s nephew."_

_All Dr. Bauer could do was stare at the stranger. The voice sure sounded young enough, but could his eyes betray him that badly?! Wasn´t it an elderly man standing before him?_

_"It´s me! Honest!" the man calling himself Karl Langenscheidt urged the poor confused doctor. "I don´t have the right papers about me right now, but..."_

_And then something clicked in the good doctor´s brain. Those baby-blue eyes with the – for a man – exceptionally long eyelashes... Yes, perhaps the man before him _could_ be Karl Langenscheidt, father Geisler´s nephew. But how... why...?_

_But the Langenscheidt-stranger had run out of patience by now and with a swift movement ripped off the plastic layer of baldness. "See?"_

_Dr. Bauer gulped. "Yes. I see." The figure in front of him looked totally unreal now: thick goldish brown hair, an old wrinkled face, the grey moustache... and the corpulent body was quite a change from the gangling young man he _thought_ he was acquainted with, too. "You could have fooled your own mother!" he muttered._

_A lopsided grin. "I know. By experience." But then he cut down to business again. "Have you seen Dr. Nowak?"_

_"No. Should I have?"_

_"You´d better not, but... Is Frau Nowak upstairs?"_

_"Yes. In her room. Still resting."_

_Before the doctor could make objections, Karl Langenscheidt was already back in the hall and racing up the stairs. _

_He found Magda sitting in the pillows against the bedboard, and after a first incredulous look when she saw him, she burst out laughing. But she stifled her laugh right away, with her hand going to her face, to her chest. "Don´t make me laugh. It hurts," she told him in mock stern._

_"Sorry."_

_"Is this your latest disguise?"_

_"Half of it. I had to remove a piece to make Dr. Bauer understand it was really me."_

_She snickered; at least that hurt less. _

_"Frau Nowak, you haven´t seen or heard from your husband these days, have you?"_

_"No. Why?" Magda tensed visibly._

_"He´s gone," Langenscheidt said simply._

_"Gone?! What do you mean: gone?" She paled. "The Gestapo?"_

_Langenscheidt shook his head and sat down. "The people who were hiding him and a few others got a visit from the Gestapo yesterday. Apparently someone betrayed them, for they knew exactly what they were looking for. They turned the whole house upside down. They found the three other people in hiding, and they demanded that they´d tell them where number four was. But they all insisted they didn´t know. The people were hauled off in a Gestapo truck, with a few men left behind to continue searching the house for this last one. But after a few hours, and pretty much having trashed the place, they left empty-handed. No shooting has been heard, so it´s not likely that they have found him anyway and killed him on the spot. And from the description I have got of the people taken away, there is no doubt that your husband was the one missing."_

_Magda let out a sigh. "Thank God..."_

_Langenscheidt sighed with her. "The problem is," he continued, "that no one seems to know where he is. I´ve enquired with all my contacts in the area; nobody has seen him. And the one thing we do know for sure is that he has no money, and no papers on him. Nor does he have any details about the escape route or contacts; all he knows is that we were preparing for the four of them to get to Holland. And..." He gulped. "And since I had not yet had the opportunity to contact him since my visit here, he didn´t even know yet that we were going to send you with him..."_

_Magda sat deadly still. "You think he´s dead, don´t you."_

_"I didn´t say that," Langenscheidt replied gently. "There is nothing to indicate it, but... yes, he might be dead."_

_Magda didn´t move._

_"But it is just as possible that he has managed to escape in the initial confusion of the Gestapo arriving," Langenscheidt continued. "And in that case, I figured he might – just might! – have headed back to you. To Hamelburg. But he hasn´t been seen around here either. So I have some hope that he has indeed managed to get away and found another hiding-place. Perhaps he has even made it across the border by himself. But as it is, I do not know..."_

_Magda still didn´t move._

_"Frau Nowak?" Langenscheidt tried worriedly._

_"Please leave me alone, Herr Langenscheidt," came a quiet voice. "I need to think."_

xxx

_To Dr. Bauer´s worried dismay, Magda had completely retreated into herself upon receiving the news of her husband´s disappearance – or death. She didn´t eat, she didn´t sleep, she didn´t speak, she didn´t cry. She drank whenever he held out a cup of tea to her – with lots of sugar in it to fight off the shock. But for the rest she just sat there, with empty eyes staring into the distance._

_It wasn´t until three days later that Langenscheidt´s next visit brought back some life into Magda. For Karl Langenscheidt had news. Even though it was but vague: a truck-driver remembered having given a guy more or less matching David´s description a lift to Köln a few days ago. _

_"What would he want in Köln?" Dr. Bauer wondered._

_"I don´t know," Langenscheidt admitted, and they both looked at Magda for a possible explanation._

_"I knew it," Magda whispered. "He´s alive!"_

_"Why would he go to Köln, Frau Nowak?" Langenscheidt repeated gently. "Do you have family there? Friends he can trust?"_

_For the first time in three days Magda´s eyes focused again. "Not that I know of. As you know, we only just moved here. We´re from Dresden. And as far as I know, I don´t recall ever having heard David mentioning acquaintances in this part of the country."_

_A triple sigh._

_"Well, at least _you_ will be fit enough to travel in a week or so," Dr. Bauer said. "At least we can make sure that _you_´ll get to safety."_

_"No."_

_"What?!"_

_"No." Very determined. "I´m not going. I´m not leaving Hamelburg."_

_"Why on earth not? You´ll be far safer across the border!"_

_"And there is no guarantee the Gestapo won´t bother you again!"_

_"I realize that. But I´m not going."_

_"Why?" Dr. Bauer demanded._

_Magda looked up into his angrily worried eyes. "Just before he left with Herr Langenscheidt, David told me to wait for him. For he´d come back. And he will; he has never gone back on his promises. Right now, I don´t have a clue where _he_ is, but _he_ knows exactly where to find _me_. If I were to leave Hamelburg, not only would I have no chance of finding _him_, but _he_ wouldn´t be able to find _me_ anymore either! So unless he´ll let me know where to find him, I´m not leaving here. I´m staying. Waiting for him to come back to me."_

_The two men looked at each other. Her arguments made sense, but..._

_"Do you realize you are taking a huge risk?" Langenscheidt asked gravely._

_"Yes, I do realize that."_

_"Do you realize that there is a chance that he may _not _come back?"_

_"He will. He said he would."_

_"That he may not be _able_ to come back?" Langenscheidt carefully rephrased his question._

_Magda bit her lip. "It doesn´t matter. As long as there is a chance that he´ll come back to me, I am not leaving this town."_

_Langenscheidt sighed. "Allright. I´ll see what I can do."_

xxx

_"No!! I´m _not_ divorcing him!" Magda yelled at the top of her voice. "How dare you even suggest such a thing!"_

_Langenscheidt staggered back as she furiously slapped him in the face. "Hold it," he tried to cool her down. "Of course you´re not really divorcing him. But if we can get the world to believe that you have, there is a fair chance that in time they´ll forget your stigma as the lady who married a Jew."_

_"I don´t care; I´m _not_ betraying him, no matter what you say!"_

_Langenscheidt sighed and took her trembling hands in his. "Frau Nowak, will you _please_ calm down and listen to me?"_

_"I´m not divorcing him. Not now, not ever," Magda insisted._

_"Sit down," he told her._

_More or less against her will she sank down beside him; her strength was still very weak. _

_"There are lots of people in the area," Langenscheidt began his explanation, "who know that Dr. Nowak is a Jew, and that you – a non-Jew, if I may use that expression – recently married him. In the eyes of the present authorities, that pretty much makes you a Jew as well._

_"You know by experience that certain powerful groups in this country do not regard a Jew as a human being. Instead, they´re being bullied, abused, tortured, and possibly killed. And as long as the nazis are in power, I´m afraid that is only going to get worse._

_"Now if you stay here in this town as Dr. Nowak´s wife, the authorities are bound to get on to you again sooner or later, and you´d be treated like any other Jew. Which means you would disappear: to a labour camp or something, or perhaps simply be killed. Either way Dr. Nowak will not find you here on his return."_

_Magda sat quiet. She hated to admit it, but Langenscheidt probably had a point._

_"If instead you pretend you´ve divorced him, there is a fair chance that you will be treated as an ordinary German again. Which means that you _will_ be here when Dr. Nowak returns. And isn´t that the most important?"_

_"But what if he hears about it?" Magda asked with a tremble. "Wouldn´t he think that...?"_

_"He´s a smart guy; I´m sure he´ll understand."_

_"But how would you do it?"_

_"Easy. The local registrar´s office has been destroyed. So they can´t check you out anymore. I´ll simply get you an Ausweis in your maiden name."_

_She burst into desperate tears. "But I don´t _want_ to divorce him!"_

_"I know." Langenscheidt heaved a sigh, and awkwardly he took the crying woman in his arms. "I know it´s hard. But try and remember that it´s only temporary. As soon as this madness is over, you´ll be back together again."_

_She just kept crying on his shoulder. "I want him. I want him so badly!" she moaned._

_Soothingly he patted her back, until she sat up and made a clumsy effort to brush her tears away. _

_"But if we do find out where he is, I can still go to him, can´t I?"_

_"Of course you can. That´s what I´m actually hoping for."_

_"And I don´t want father Geisler to think that I´ve divorced him."_

_Langenscheidt had a slow smile. "Sure. I´ll tell him about the arrangement if you like."_

_She frowned. "You?"_

_"He is my uncle, remember? Anyway, I do not want you returning to your house until the Gestapo has lost interest in it. And I´d like to keep a bit of an eye on you there, so you´ll see me quite often."_

_"Yes, but..." She hesitated. "I´m going to have to find a job. I think I have enough savings to get me through a few months, but... That is, if they´re still there..."_

_"At the house? I doubt it, I´m sorry." He sighed. "Well, we´ll cross that bridge when we come to it. First..." He picked up the bag he had placed on the floor upon his entrance. "We´ve got to make you look a little better."_

_He opened the bag and to Magda´s surprise he pulled out a female´s wig. And another one. And another..._

_"Where did you get those?"_

_He smiled bashfully. "I need them for my work."_

_"But... I thought you were an actor!"_

_"I am." A deep sigh. "I´d rather not mention this, and I´d appreciate it if you´d keep the lid on it as well, but..." Another sigh. "My main line of work is impersonating women."_

_"What!" Magda was stunned, and involuntarily she moved away from him a bit. "You´re joking..."_

_He shook his head. "No, I´m not. But I have a stagename of course. And I´d rather not have the name Karl Langenscheidt linked to that part of my life."_

_Magda let go of her breath. "Yes, I can imagine that." She was quiet for a moment, digesting the information. "So..." she hesitated awkwardly, "are you one of those... men... who... well... actually want to be a... a woman?" _

_"No." Langenscheidt frowned, obviously pondering how much he could or should reveal. He studied the ceiling for a moment; then he continued quietly: "It started when I was still in school, as a joke. A bet. But with eleven sisters for an example, I happened to be so good at it that I sort of got trapped in a career. At least it was a way of making money in a time of crisis at home. Later I´ve been trying to build up another career, as an ordinary actor. But that hasn´t been easy." _

_Suddenly he looked her straight in the eye. "Look, I´m only telling you this so you know I´m not some kind of weird oddity. I´m an ordinary guy, with my heart in the right place, who just happened to get trapped in a successful career I didn´t really choose myself. I can understand it if you suddenly don´t trust me anymore, but I hope..." He gulped. "I hope I can trust _you_ to keep this information to yourself. My work requires that I live so many double lives; my life here in Hamelburg as father Geisler´s nephew is one of the very few opportunities I have to simply be myself now and then. _Please_ don´t deprive me of that...?" _

_He was practically begging by now, and Magda knew she couldn´t possibly reject his appeal to her secrecy. If only because he had done so much for her these past weeks. And for David. "I won´t. I won´t tell a soul. I promise," she agreed quietly. _

_The gratitude was in his eyes. "Here. Try this one." He handed her one of the wigs, in an effort to get past the awkward moment. "I brought the ones that are more or less similar to your natural colour. But you´ll have to decide which hair-dress you prefer for the upcoming months."_

_Magda tried on the wigs, and settled for one with the hair pinned up in a somewhat similar fashion as she used to wear it._

_"It feels odd," she told him, "but kind of nice to have my head covered with hair again."_

_He smiled. "Just don´t go to bed with it. Or take a bath," he told her. "And I´d advise you to take shelter when it´s raining as well."_

_She nodded. "Of course." A shy glance in his direction, and then she suddenly hugged him. "Thank you, Herr Langenscheidt. Thank you so much... For everything. And for your trust."_


	5. Chapter 5

_The weeks turned into months, and still no sign or word from David. Magda had long since returned to her home in the labourer´s quarter of the town. Karl Langenscheidt had helped her repairing the furniture, and by a miracle nor the Gestapo, nor "ordinary" plunderers had found the savings she had tucked away in the kitchen._

_Still, the first night she was back, the Gestapo paid her a visit. Fortunately major Feldkamp wasn´t among them, and they barely touched her this time, but the house was trashed once again in their vigorous searching._

_She kept up well as long as they were around, but as soon as their cars had disappeared out of sight she broke down in tears for belated fear._

_Karl Langenscheidt was furious when he heard about it. "The beasts, the monsters!" he muttered. "Frau Nowak, if you like, I could come and stay the nights with you whenever I can, at least until they really lose interest. I can bring a blanket and sleep on the floor in the living-room. But I don´t like the idea of you having to face those brutes on your own!"_

_Magda´s fear for the Gestapo exceeded her fear for social gossip by miles, and she gratefully accepted his chivalrous offer. So for several months Karl Langenscheidt slept regularly on the floor of Magda´s living-room. Sometimes he came early, sometimes as late as midnight or even past, and sometimes he showed up in one of his disguises. _

_The formal Fräulein Kirchhoffs and Herr Langenscheidt soon turned into Magda and Karl, but even though they became real good and close friends, there was not a spark of romance in their relationship. _

_The neighbourhood of course came to its own conclusions. But since Magda kept very much to herself, and Karl did not have many contacts in town either, they were not really aware of the slaunder being spread about especially her. _

_Magda had tried to get in touch with David´s parents. Perhaps they had a clue as to where he might have gone? But her letters returned undeliverable, and Karl´s contacts made it clear that the Nowak place stood empty. They had disappeared, like so many others. And no one knew whether they had been taken by the Gestapo, or whether they might have managed to flee._

_Magda´s own family offered that she could come back home "now that her husband had left her". But their way of expressing themselves made her very uneasy, as if they considered it a very generous act on their behalf to offer a home to a fallen daughter turning back in disgrace. And besides, she was still determined not to leave Hamelburg._

_But things were about to get even more complicated, despite the serenity with which she announced it during her final check-up for her Gestapo injuries in the summer of 1938. _

_"Dr. Bauer, I think I am with child."_

_Dr. Bauer stiffened. "Langenscheidt´s?" He _had_ heard some stories, and he knew father Geisler´s nephew had spent many a night at her place these past months. _

_But Magda was genuinely surprised by his supposition. "Karl´s? Of course not. It´s David´s baby."_

_"Are you sure?" It slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself._

_"Of course I´m sure. I have never slept with anyone but David."_

_"Ah." Dr. Bauer took a deep breath. ´_Please let it be a false alarme,_´ he prayed fervently in his mind. ´_I don´t want to think of the consequences if...´

_But even a quick examination left him with no doubt: Magda was definitely pregnant, and judging by the size of her womb, the pregnancy was to date back to early March. And if – as Magda herself had related – this Gestapoguy hadn´t had the chance to rape her, then David Nowak was indeed the only possible father of the child._

_"Indeed, you are pregnant. I´d say about eighteen weeks."_

_Magda simply beamed._

_"But Magda, I..." He cleared his throat. "I hate to say this, but you´d better not mention to anyone that David is the father."_

_Magda´s expression darkened. "Don´t tell me I have to live another lie. To have to lie to this child about his father."_

_Dr. Bauer sighed heavily. "I am truly sorry, but it´s your only option if you want to keep the child alive."_

_"Why?" Magda demanded, protectively crossing her arms over the oh so slight curve of her belly._

_Another sigh. "According to the present law, I have to abort all babies with Jewish blood. Don´t worry; I would never even consider such a thing!" he added quickly as Magda jumped off the examination-table in alarm. "I don´t do abortions, no matter what race the baby is. A child in the womb is a living creature, a living human being, and I refuse to kill any human being. But if you go around broadcasting that you are carrying David Nowak´s child, we might as well abort it right away. For the nazis will simply take it from you as soon as it is born. I´ve heard about it from my colleagues in Düsseldorf. It´s happened quite a few times there already."_

_"No..." Magda whispered. "No, I want to have this baby. I don´t want it to die..."_

_"Then insist that you don´t know who the father is. After your brush with the Gestapo, everyone will assume that you will have been raped by one of them. Or several. That should give you an alibi. But whatever you tell people, _don´t_ mention that it might be David´s baby. Understood?"_

_Magda nodded. Speechless._

_And when she left after Dr. Bauer´s final okay on her former injuries, the doctor mumbled: "And then I didn´t even mention the damage that might have come to the child when you were so badly abused in the beginning of your pregnancy. Still," he sighed, "you haven´t had a miscarriage, so there is some hope. As long as you, Magda Nowak, keep your mouth shut about David being the father!"_

xxx

_Still, Magda felt she had to be able to be genuine to _someone_ about her fears and happiness for this child. And of course it was her good friend Karl who got to share her felicity: she told him the first time he came round again._

_The Gestapo apparently had lost their interest in her and/or in David. She had not been bothered for weeks now, and by mutual agreement they had recently decided that Magda would try and make it through the nights alone. The first few nights she had hardly slept a wink, continually listening to the frightening noises outside. But she had already started to get used to it. _

_When Karl Langenscheidt came by a few days later to enquire how she was coping all on her own, he was happily surprised by her news. "That´s great! I´m so happy for you! It means you still have something of David here with you!"_

_Magda beamed from ear to ear, but she had to tell him what Dr. Bauer had said as well._

_"He´s probably right," Karl sighed. "But as you say: if that is the price to be paid to have David´s child with you..."_

_She hugged him for his understanding. "You are such a good friend, Karl. I don´t know what I would do without you." A sudden chuckle. "I might even consider naming the baby after you!"_

_He grinned. "Or perhaps you´d better not. Before you know it, the neighbours might think that _I _am the father!"_

_His words appeared to be prophetic. As her pregnancy started to show more and more, the slaunder increased proportionately, to the extent that not even a loner like Magda herself could miss it anymore. She was called a slut and a whore, both behind her back and openly, in her face. According to the stories, she had pretended to be married for a few weeks, but when her lover had left her, she had thrown herself at a variety of men staying the night with her. Father Geisler´s nephew was frequently mentioned as one of the possible fathers of the child, and no matter how the young man denied it, no matter how stubbornly Magda insisted that she didn´t know who the father was (probably a Gestapoman, but definitely _not_ her friend Karl Langenscheidt), those stories never died down. _

_Especially the fact that she had spent the night with so many different men (Karl in some of his disguises, coming directly from work) was not easily forgotten by the people of Hamelburg, and Fräulein Magdalena Kirchhoffs was generally established as a slut. And thus shunned as much as possible. _

_Only Dr. Bauer and Karl Langenscheidt knew the truth. But they also knew they had to keep quiet in order to save the life of David Nowak´s child, in a world that was growing more anti-semitic by the day. _

_But it was especially Magda Nowak-Kirchhoffs who paid the price, and many nights she cried herself to sleep. For her social ordeal, for the loneliness, for the lies she was forced to live... and for her dear, dear David, who seemed to have gone up in thin air. Oh, how she wanted him; needed his love, his support, his comfort... himself._

xxx

_It was 6 a.m. on the day of Christmas Eve as the door of the church creaked open and a heavily pregnant Magda Kirchhoffs entered the already decorated church. Quietly, not wanting to disturb the divine silence, she closed the door behind her and waited for her eyes to adjust to the light. Then she waddled slowly down the aisle, made a slight curtsey and crossed herself, and sat down in one of the first pews. First she had to catch her breath and stretch her back; then..._

_Carefully she eased down onto her knees and rested her arms on the back of the pew in front of her. It was not a very comfortable position, with the baby lying so heavily in her after some 43 weeks of pregnancy. But she needed to be here. She needed to pray. For the child. For David. And for strength for herself, to get her through labour. _

_Labour. _

_She shivered. She was scared. Scared to death. She would go into labour any moment now, Dr. Bauer had said yesterday. Hours and hours of pain and agony awaiting her. And she would have to face it all alone. No David to comfort her. No friends to help her; even her good friend Karl was out of town for a few weeks, overloaded as he was with engagements during the holiday-season. It would be just she herself and those labour pains and God. Oh, how she needed His strength, His comfort...!_

_She tried to shift her weight somewhat. Was it just her imagination or was the baby really heavier this morning? Or maybe it was the long walk to church; that she was just tired._

_Suddenly she felt a fatherly hand on her shoulder. "Magda my child, are you allright?"_

_Startled, she looked up into father Geisler´s kind face. "Yes. Yes, I´m allright. I´m just..." She burst into tears. "I´m just so scared...!"_

_Father Geisler helped her up on the pew and sat down beside her. "Scared of what?" he asked, though he could guess._

_"Scared to give birth..." Magda sobbed. "The pain... the child... I wish it would not have to come out; it´s so much safer inside. But he´s getting so big... so heavy..."_

_Father Geisler nodded. "Giving birth _is_ scary business, I imagine. But it´s the most natural thing in the world. You can do it. And you don´t have to go through it alone, remember? The Lord is with you, every moment. And Mother Mary knows exactly what it is to give birth. She understands your fears better than anyone else."_

_"But Mother Mary didn´t have the entire town on her back..."_

_"You think so? She got with child before she was married. A situation like that was as little accepted back then as it is today. And," he added quietly, "she, too, couldn´t tell anyone who the Father was..."_

_Magda looked up. Very slowly. "You are right, father. I never looked at it from that angle, but you are right: her being with child must have been a scandal, too." She let out a cautious sigh. "While in fact there was nothing to be ashamed of..."_

_Father Geisler pondered her words for a moment. Then he asked right out: "Magda, do _you_ have something to be ashamed of regarding this pregnancy?"_

_"No." She looked him steadily in the eye. "No, I have nothing to be ashamed of, father, save for the fact that I have lied about not knowing who the child´s father is. For I do know."_

_Father Geisler regarded her for a moment. "It´s David´s, isn´t it?" he whispered. It was more of a statement than a question._

_Magda bit her lip. And tears gathered in her eyes as she softly confirmed: "Yes. I have never slept with anyone but David. Not even those Gestapoguys have entered my body." She gulped. "One of them tried, but I kicked him so fiercely in a sensitive spot that he lost all appetite for it. And no matter what people say, I have never slept with Karl. We´re just good friends; he has never touched me. So there is absolutely no doubt that I am carrying David´s child. Even though I didn´t find out until after he was gone."_

_She shifted and tried to support her aching back. These wooden pews were not the most comfortable seats even under normal conditions, but with a heavy baby-belly they were plain _un_comfortable. On the other hand, she didn´t know how to be comfortable in _any_ position anymore._

_"I believe you, my child," father Geisler said. "But I understand we have to keep this between the two of us."_

_Magda had a wan smile as she tried to ease the pressure off her back by leaning forward. "Karl knows," she told the priest. "He has known from the beginning. And Dr. Bauer of course."_

_"And when is the baby due?"_

_"Any day now." Magda sighed. "I´m already three weeks over time. And I´m scared." She hesitated. "Will you give me your blessing, father?"_

_Father Geisler smiled. "Of course." And he laid his hands on her and said a prayer: for strength, for keeping her fears at bay, for the child´s well-being and her own – and for the beloved absent father, so very much missed, who didn´t even know he was about to become a father... "God bless you, my child."_

_Magda let out a sigh. "Thank you, father."_

_He gave her a reassuring smile. "Now you are ready to give birth, aren´t you?" he teased her._

_"I hope so." Magda shifted again. The baby was really heavy this morning..._

_"Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?" he offered. "Or would you rather stay here a while longer?"_

_"Tea sounds good." Carefully she stood and straightened her back. "I haven´t even had breakfast yet."_

_"Well, that can be arranged." He led the way through the church´s back door to the rectory. "Take a seat; I´ll have tea in a few minutes," he invited her._

_Magda carefully lowered her heavy body onto one of the chairs by the kitchen-table. But before she was actually seated, she stiffened and grabbed hold of the table. Startled, she looked down, but even if she couldn´t look over her big baby-belly, she realized all too well what she felt: fluid trickling down the inside of her thighs. And it did definitely _not_ come from her bladder!_

_Carefully she straightened up again, and the next thing she knew it felt like a big bottle of lukewarm water emptied itself from the lower part of her body. _

_"The baby," she whispered. "My water broke: the baby is coming!"_

_Father Geisler turned around in a flash. "What!?"_

_"The baby is coming. My water broke," Magda repeated. She felt strangely calm. Happy even. This was it. The waiting was over; the baby was finally coming!_

_Father Geisler paled and dropped the spoon he had in his hand. "Good gracious... You sit down," he urged her in a half panic, "I´ll go and get Frau Telemann!"_

_Magda did as she was told, and marvelled at the peace she felt. Here she was, going into that labour she had heard such hair-raising stories about, and she felt actually calm!_

_Frau Telemann lived next door, and it took father Geisler no more than a few minutes – even this early in the morning – to get her back to his kitchen with him. They found Magda groaning and hugging herself in an attempt to cope with her first contraction._

_"She´ll have to lie down," Frau Telemann said. "Do you think we could get her home?"_

_"No way," father Geisler said. "She is all alone there. She can have her baby here. Get one of the guest-rooms ready for her."_

_Frau Telemann ran upstairs, and as the contraction subsided, father Geisler asked anxiously: "Magda, are you allright?"_

_She took a deep breath. "Yeah. I´ll be allright."_

_They sat in silence till Frau Telemann came down to announce that the room was ready. But just as they helped her up the stairs, Magda was hit by the next contraction. And when they had safely installed her in the bed, father Geisler ran straight down again. "I´ll get Dr. Bauer," was all they heard from him. _

_Dr. Bauer came, examined the mother-to-be, and declared that she had definitely gone into labour, but that she still had a long way to go. "So if you´d rather be in your own bed, we can still arrange that."_

_Magda sighed. "If it´s not too much trouble, I think I´d like to stay here, as father Geisler suggested. Father?"_

_"Of course you are staying here. We´re not going to let you go through this all by yourself."_

_"Allright. I´ll come and check on her every now and then. But come and get me when the contractions come at five minute intervals, or when she feels the urge to push. Well, Magda, then I´ll say ´take care´ to you for the upcoming hours. Don´t panic and try to relax, that´s all. And stay in bed. I´ll come and see you later today."_

_The hours passed slowly. Every now and then father Geisler or Frau Telemann popped their head in to ask how it was going, but Magda was actually glad to be left to her own thoughts most of the time. It was good to know that there were people close at hand who cared, but there was just so much to think about. Thoughts about the baby she was going to have in her arms in a few hours. And thoughts about her dear David, who didn´t even know he was to become a father any moment now. _

_It wasn´t until halfway the evening before Dr. Bauer announced that the end of her agonies was coming in sight. She hardly heard him though; by then there was hardly time to catch her breath in between the fierce contractions. All she could think of now was surviving the pain. And finally, at less than half an hour from Christmas Day, the fragile cry of a newborn echoed through the room._

_"It´s a girl," Dr. Bauer told the exhausted new mother. He cleared his throat. "And I can tell you one thing: there cannot be a doubt that she is a daughter of David Nowak´s!"_

xxx

_Half an hour later the churchbells sang to announce the midnight Christmas-mass. The church was absolutely packed – as always on Christmas Eve._

_And as father Geisler met all the happy faces in the congregation before him, he decided to tell the beautiful story of Jesus´s birth from a slightly different angle this time: indicating the scandal Mother Mary was facing in becoming with child before she was even married, and not being at liberty to make public who the child´s Father was..._

xxx

_"I don´t care where you get the money from! Just pay me the rent you owe me, okay? And if you can´t pay, you can´t live here; it´s that simple."_

_"But...!"_

_"I´ll give you until Saturday. If I don´t have the money by then...!"_

_Angry footsteps left the house, and the front door was slammed shut. _

_And Magda was nearly in tears. She still felt so weak. "I´m sorry, Rosemarie," she whispered to the child, peacefully asleep in her arms. "I´m so sorry..."_

_When Magda had returned home with her little daughter after her obligatory ten days bedrest, she knew there was trouble ahead. For what would she and the baby live on? _

_With such a young infant to take care of, she could not possibly go out and get a job – if she´d have any more luck in finding one now than she had been so far. By living extremely sober this past year she had managed to stretch her savings to last for much longer than she had originally anticipated. But by now, they were just about completed. She could breastfeed the child, that wouldn´t be the problem. But what would she feed herself with?_

_Warily she lowered herself with Rosemarie in the old wicker-chair Karl had found for her at a Düsseldorf fleemarket a few months ago, just about when her baby-belly had begun to be uncomfortable. Gently she rocked back and forth, pondering the problem for the umpteenth time. _

_Where was she to get the money to pay the rent? To buy food? Simply to live? Or were she and Rosemarie to live on the street, doomed to starvation? How could she ever justify that to David: to have his dear little girl die in the streets?! Why did she have to go through this all by herself anyway?! Why couldn´t he be with her, let her come and join him, wherever he was! Why didn´t he at least _write_?! _

_She hugged the little child close. "I´d wish your Daddy was here..." she sobbed desperately. "He´d take care of us, and make sure we wouldn´t have to starve. He is the sweetest man you will ever meet. Oh, if only I knew where he was...!" _

_At that moment the child´s godfather showed himself in. "Hey, what´s the matter?" He knelt down in front of her._

_Magda brushed her tears away as well as she could. "I just don´t know what to do. The landlord has been around every day this week for the rent. But I don´t have it, Karl; I don´t have it! I don´t have a single pfennig left! And this morning he threatened to throw me out if I don´t pay by Saturday. But where am I to get money?"_

_Karl Langenscheidt gave her a warm smile. "Don´t you worry, that´s what godfathers are for. I´ll pay that rent. Can´t have my little godchild thrown out in the street, can I?"_

_Magda groaned. "Karl, that´s very sweet of you, but I don´t want charity. I want to be able to provide for my own daughter – I just don´t see how I can do it, especially when she is still so small."_

_"Far too small to be without her mother," Karl agreed. "And you, too, need some time to recover. And to be with Rosemarie. You can´t go out working yet."_

_"But what do I do?!"_

_"Listen." Karl pulled up the other chair. "I´ll support you these first months. Make sure you don´t starve and can pay your rent and so on."_

_"But I do not _want_ charity!"_

_"It´s not," Karl stated matter-of-factly. "I´m just making sure my godchild has a roof over her head and gets properly fed. And if _you_ don´t eat properly, _she_ won´t get fed properly. Look at it as a godfather´s prerogative: I´m supposed to spoil the child, nicht wahr? And I wouldn´t even qualify it as "spoiling" to provide my godchild with the basic necessities: her mother, food, and a roof over her head."_

_Magda couldn´t help a watery smile. "If you put it that way... But what about you? I don´t want you to go starving in order to provide for us."_

_He smiled bashfully. "Don´t you worry about that: I´m not exactly a pauper. One of the basic advantages of being known as a famous female impersonator is that I can pretty much set my own salary-standards. They´re fighting to engage me anyway. But I can understand your wish to be independent. So how about we get you a job in a few months? A job you can do at home; sewing or something?"_

_"_You_ could get me a job?"_

_"Well, I have more opportunities to ask around than you have right now."_

_That was true._

_"So with the worst of your financial troubles solved, how about letting me get acquainted with my little godchild?"_

_Magda smiled. "Of course." She struggled to get up with the baby in her arms, but Karl was already there and simply took the baby from her like an expert. _

_"Where did you learn that?" Magda demanded with some envy. "You´re far more skilled with a baby than I am!"_

_"My sisters," he replied softly while drinking in Rosemarie´s features. "I´ve got eleven sisters, remember? All older than me, all married. So I´ve got nephews and nieces by the bulk." His expression was as soft as his voice. "She´s a beautiful little baby, Magda. I am proud to be her godfather."_

xxx

_Life went on. Little Rosemarie Kirchhoffs was a happy, pleasant baby, and Magda adored her little daughter. _

_Karl Langenscheidt had indeed found her a job as a seemstress when Rosemarie was about three months old, so she wasn´t as dependent on her friend as in the first months of Rosemarie´s life. Still, he regularly slipped her some extra money to make life a bit more colourful as he said: "You provide her with bread, and I´d like to spoil her with marmalade on her bread."_

_And then the war came. In the beginning it was just a black shadow in the background. Life in Hamelburg went on pretty much as usual, and the fighting front was far away. _

_But then all the young men were called under arms, to go and fight at the front. Fathers and sons left, and were never heard from again. Karl Langenscheidt was one of the very few of his age in the area who managed to stay out of the military, although his explanation, "because of my acting skills", was merely raising more questions with Magda. _

_But she had long since learned not to ask too many questions. Safer for her, and safer for others. Still, no one could stop her from thinking and combining facts. And combining a few things from the past and the present, she suspected that Karl was involved in a kind of forbidden resistance movement to bring down the Führer. _

_As Karl Langenscheidt grew quieter, his visits grew less frequent. It happened occasionally that she didn´t see him for weeks, much to Rosemarie´s (and her own) disappointment, for the girl was very fond of her uncle Karl. She once even asked why Mummy didn´t marry him, so they could all live happily together. _

_Remarks like that hurt. From the very beginning Magda had tried to acquaint Rosemarie with her father: telling her about what kind of a person he was, what he looked like, how much he loved them, but that he couldn´t be with them because of the war. But in her innocence, the girl could persist in asking unanswerable questions: Daddy´s name, where he was now and where he came from, what was his job, what was he doing for the war... Rosemarie sure was a pretty smart kid, but Magda couldn´t quite trust a four-year-old not to repeat what she knew about her father... _

_But what hurt the most was the fact that not just Rosemarie, but she herself, too, sometimes wondered if David really existed. Even if they really had been (or were) married. As the years passed, always struggling to make ends meet, raising a daughter and doing sewing work, the memory of David Nowak seemed to fade into a dream. And that scared her more than anything. She didn´t want to lose her faith in him. She wanted to keep believing that he loved her, and that he would come back to her one day. Or that he´d let her know where he was, so that she might finally join him with Rosemarie. _

_But with not a single sign of life from him in all these years, it was getting harder and harder to keep believing. Believing that he´d come back as he promised to. Especially since everyone else seemed to have forgotten..._

_Hamelburg had known Dr. David Nowak for only a few weeks. And that was years ago, so by now he was hardly remembered anymore. And with so many mothers having to raise their children without the father present, Magda´s scandalous status as an unmarried mother started to fade. As much as David was forgotten, as much people seemed to forget that little Rosemarie Kirchhoffs´s father was registered as "unknown". A vague shadow of scandal remained, but Magda discovered that – oh so slowly – she was beginning to be accepted in the town. _

_That was a positive side of the war. A definite negative development was the Allied response to Hitler´s expansive dreams. Magda was glad the other countries fought back, to try and defeat that madman in Berlin. But their tactics she could do without: bombing-raids on the very nearby Hamelburg industrial area, as well as saboteurs blowing up everything useful in sight made for very scary nights. Rosemarie had always slept with her mother, but with all the fires and explosions lately, the girl lay paralyzed stiff for fear in her mother´s arms every night, crying for terror with every new explosion. At least, if a stray bomb would hit their house, they would both be gone..._

_In the end, not even Karl Langenscheidt´s acting skills had saved him from being drafted into the military. Fortunately he got assigned to a pretty safe post: as guard in the nearby POW-camp. According to him, it wasn´t such a bad job: his commanding officer was humane and no nazi, the contact with the foreign prisoners gave him a chance to practise his languages, and every now and then he could exchange something for Red Cross goodies that had long grown unattainable in Germany. Like sweets and chocolate bars, which he always saved for Rosemarie._

_But with more and more men hauled off to a certain death at the front, the Hamelburg school suddenly found itself with three vacancies for teachers. And since Rosemarie had just started kindergarten, which meant she was at school most of the day, too, Magda jumped at the opportunity, applied for the job and got assigned to teach the third grade. Financially it made life a lot easier for a few years, but in practice, the general scarcity of everything did not permit them to take their life to a higher standard anyway._

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_And then came the fire..._

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**Author´s note**: this fire is mentioned extensively in another _Hogan´s Heroes_ fanfic ("_Theater of War_", by Eva Seifert). It was supposed to have happened in January 1945, destroying most of the town of Hamelburg. "_The Pied Piper of Hamelburg_" (of which the chapters 4-8 make for this crossover-story "_Against All Odds_") is my continuation of Eva Seifert´s "_Theater of War_".

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Karl Langenscheidt is the only regular character from _Hogan´s Heroes_ in this part of the story, though described in my own interpretation of him from my story "_Chameleon Fever_".

Dr. Bauer and father Geisler originate from the story "_Theater of War_".

Major Feldkamp is more or less referring to a guest character from _Hogan´s Heroes_.

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There will be more: later on in the overall story, I´ll get back to Magda´s present situation and what happened to David. But that part hasn´t been written yet. ;-)


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